The Supplements, Annotated?

What's New With Phil & Dixie ... errr ... What's Next For Annotations? 

The response to my modest little effort to annotate OD&D's TLBB has been gratifying, to say the least. My current plans are to (1) finish whipping my manuscript into a nice PDF and POD format, and (2) being annotating the supplements. I'm considering all sources at this time, though it's possible I'll narrow the field a bit once work begins.

The syllabus starts getting a bit fuzzy after one gets "outside the box" but at the least I'll include the digest-sized booklets; with the possible exception of Swords & Spells.

What I might do is an "off-the-menu" annotation of the auxilliary works: Chainmail, Swords & Spells, AH's Outdoor Survival, and the periodicals Strategic Review and Dragon.

I'm currently projecting no more than 2 weeks to polish the current OD&D annotations ms, I've been working steadily on it the past few days, then I'll begin with Supplement I: Greyhawk. 

Thank you for reading! 

The Egg of Coot, Annotated

The Egg of Coot, A Historical Note: The Blackmoor Campaign’s “Egg of Coot” was not a jab, subtle or otherwise, at Gary Gygax. The rumor refuses to die Arneson’s Egg of Coot was Gygax, whose initials of EGG make this an easy leap for some. The truth of the matter is this: the Egg of Coot was an insult against a real person but it was was not Gygax. The evil “Coot” immortalized in Arneson’s campaign was a gamer in Arneson’s Napoleonic Wargame named Gregg Scott (grEGG sCOTt). Scott was unhappy as Arneson shifted his gaming group from Napoleonic warfare simulations to fantasy gaming. Scott took his frustration out upon Arneson by playing a rather nasty joke on Arneson which cost Arneson both time and money to correct. Arneson got revenge by immortalizing Scott as the evil Egg of Coot. Both Arneson and Gygax, as well as gamers in Arneson’s group, told this story over the years when asked, there is no doubt at all Gygax was not the Coot.

III: 31 through 36, Wrapping It All Up; Annotated

Page 31

 

More Naval Combat rules: shearing oars, grappling, and boarding. 

Boarding invokes the Chainmail rules again, and introduces newcomers to gaming to the concept of Command Control (C&C). C&C is explained more fully on the next page, the remainder of this page is taken up with melee rules, presumably for those who do not possess Chainmail. 

Page 32

 

Command Control: we learn here C&C is the ability of the command figure to have his troops follow his orders and remain under his control. It is based upon Charisma, a fine choice given how CHA works in D&D. Basically, one must keep the leader visible to his troops and free from melee. 

Page 33

 

Swimming: good guidelines for swimming, drowning, and armor removal here. One might well suppose anyone wearing plate who finds themselves in the water should spend it making peace with their deity or deities. 

Rules for ship capturing and typical crew by ship types, and their respective tasks, follows. 

Pages 34-36

 

These last few pages kick off with some detailed advice on running certain monsters in an aquatic setting. The man-type aquatic species are quite fond of grappling passing ships. There is also good information for the attentive reader for establishing movement speeds and armor classes. 

Healing Wounds: in light of Gygax’s explanations regarding the nature of hit points, one may question the glacial rate of recovery. The rules themselves even dryly point out [t]his can take a long time. Basically, Gygax claimed approximately d6 of a PC’s hit points were actually representative of physical damage. The remainder a combination of luck, stamina, divine favor, etc. 

Time: easy to follow, basic guidelines for timekeeping in a campaign. Gygax felt this was an important component to conducting a game. Careful timekeeping records would certainly aid a referee with multiple groups running in the same campaign, rather less common nowadays then it was in the halcyon days of the hobby. 

Afterward

 

A final pat on the back from the author, exhorting us to go forth and make new rulings in accordance with how we felt the game should run. The afterword asks an important question, one which every referee considering running an OD&D should ask themselves: why have us do any more of your imagining for you?

Page Bottom Illustration: though they are part of an illustration, we have always regarded them as the last words of the rules … 

FIGHT ON!

III-30: Rams ... No, Not That Kind, Annotated

Page 30 

 

Ramming: In every printing save the eighth, bullet point #1 has an asterisk with no accompanying footnote. Neither co-author recalls what the footnote should have said. 

We have always felt it was similar to the rules for stepping/unstepping masts at the bottom of page 33: This is done only on Galleys and Longships. Ten crew accomplish the task in three turns. Dave Arneson told me once that seemed a good fit for that bit of text, but he simply did not remember for certain.

III-24: The Natives Are Restless, Annotated

Page 24

 

Player/Character Support And Upkeep: how often should the 1% of XP gold piece cost be deducted? We went with weekly or any portion thereof spent within the town or city limits. 

Baronies: contains useful guidelines for setting up a barony, whether for a player-character or for the referee’s campaign. 

Tourism: we feel this choice would require some imagination for this not to feel like an anachronism. Fortunately, most referees have this in abundance. 

Angry Villager Rule: the threat of this is typically enough to keep players in line. We have never heard of anyone having to use this more than once. 

Other Worlds: contains suggestions for a creative referee to put to use in this paragraph.

III-23: More About Hirelings, Annotated

Page 23

 

Men-At-Arms: no hobbits or gnomes included. We have also wondered why elves do not have light foot and light horse. 

Obtaining Specialists & Men-At-Arms, and Rumors, Information, and Legends: they work the same way. The players ride into town, spread a bit of money around, and wait for results. Preferably at the local tavern. The only difference is the amount of money.

III-22: NPCs That Work For The Player-Characters

Page 22

 

Specialists, Alchemists: we quickly expanded the role of these in our campaign. They were able to function as auxiliary magic-users, not just for brewing potions but writing scrolls and researching spells and magic items.

III-21: Lost Castle Construction Lore, Annotated

Page 21

 

Barbican: on this page of illustrations, in every printing after the first and before the eighth, the barbican is smudged. The drawings in the first printing are different, though the items depicted are the same. 

Lost Lore: appearing in the first printing is a short table labeled Other Construction and Equipment Costs. Costs for moats, earthworks, palisades, and various siege machinery are listed; nine lines total.

III-20: Running Through The Woods, Annotated

Page 20

 

Evading In The Wilderness: as one may well expect, the bigger the party the more difficult it is for that party to evade pursuit. 

Pursuit In The Wilderness: if the party is in pursuit it incurs some hefty resting penalties. In addition, while resting the number of wandering checks increases to two per day. 

Construction of Castles And Strongholds: constructing a fortress is a substantial investment on the part of players.

III-18 & 19: Not All (Monsters) Who Wander Are Lost, Wilderness Redux; Annotations

Page 18-19

 

Wilderness Wandering Monsters: extensive tables based around the type of terrain and including specific chances of getting lost. There is up to a 50% of losing one’s way in mountains and swamps, and even in the city a 17% of getting off-track. 

With regard to city based wandering monsters: why so many undead? Any city encounter is 50% likely to yield an undead encounter, the other type of encounter will be man. It presents an interesting point to ponder with regard to city adventures. 

The “optional” encounter tables in particular have a large number of monsters the referee must fill out for himself: Barsoomian creatures, dinosaurs, prehistoric creatures such as cave bears and sabre-tooth tigers, etc. There are also “normal” insects, vermin, and animals listed though the referee is advised they will generally be of the giant variety … 

 

The NPC adventuring party has a pretty good odds of having at least a few useful magic items. Referees relying solely upon random generation of these items may inadvertently allow unbalancing items into his campaign.

III-17: Off The Beaten Path, Annotated

Page 17

 

Terrain Penalties: Outdoor Survival (OS) is referred to once again, and once again the rules are listed anyway. We questioned this the first time we read the rules, and recall it often when the criticism you need other rules to run it is levied against these rules. In truth the pertinent information is usually included. We wonder if perhaps Gygax was encouraging readers to use the resources listed (or ones like them) to come up with their own rules. 

 

Rest: dragons apparently wear themselves out flying. If their appetite matches their weariness (referee voice: heh-heh) then the surrounding countryside is in for it. A mob may come looking for the dragon’s rider to address restitution. 

Scale: 5 miles per hex is official but many referees, ourselves included, switched to 6 miles per hex to be easier to divide into movement rates. 

Turn: further obfuscating the usage of turn we have a wilderness turn being equal to a day.

III-16: Into The Wilds, Continued; Annotated

Page 16

 

Guards: besides the Lord or Lady of the castle, there will be a number of lieutenants and troops with whom the party must contend. 

 

All in all, the wilderness takes form as a dangerous place and perhaps left for when parties have sufficient funds to hire men-at-arms or are at least mid-level. 

Movement Tables: include numbers for travel by land, water, and air. This list contains a good number of examples, useful for extrapolating movement rates for other types of conveyances. 

Large Party Movement: we do not recall running parties of 1,000 or more. Should one desire to do so, however, guidelines are given here.

III-15: Into The Wilds, Annotated

Page 15

 

The Wilderness: introduces us to the concept of the wilderness as an milieu much like the Underworld, as opposed to merely forests and caves, respectively. 

 

We have heard some gamers intimate the comparison of Blackmoor as a one-horse town to the city of Greyhawk as a subtle slur against Arneson. We feel this is not likely, as both descriptions are quite accurate and the two were still collaborating at this point in the game’s history. 

Last of all we are introduced to The Avalon Hill Game Company’s Outdoor Survival as an adjunct to running a campaign. The map is handy, but the rules themselves have some utility and can be adapted for use. 

Castles: there is an even chance encountering a castle means dealing with its inhabitants. Depending upon the alignment of the respective parties, it would seem the easiest a wandering party can get away from the encounter is by paying a toll of 100 to 600 gold pieces. There are chances of losing one’s armor, getting sent on a geas and having magic items removed from the party, paying a tithe of all their money and jewels, or being sent on a quest. Of course, there is also the possibility of battle with a hostile force.

III-12 thru 14: Cursing The Thoroughness of the Reader, Annotated

Pages 12-14

 

Example of Play: a very good, useful (if short) example of running a session. Even in this basket of gems there is a stand-out … REF: (Cursing the thoroughness of the Caller!) This may have fuled rumors to the effect early campaigns tended to be “player versus referee.”

III-8 & 9: It's A Move, It's A Turn, Both, Neither! Annotated

Pages 8-9

 

Unguarded Treasures: cautions us to against making unguarded treasure, presumably in response to bullet point #2 on the previous page, easily visible or obtainable. 

 

Maintaining Freshness: raises a point that may not occur to even experienced referees. A large, multi-layered underworld dungeon (mega-dungeon in modern gaming circles) need not, and arguably should not, be static. The denizens will alter areas to suit their needs or respond the PC party’s incursion into their domain. New areas and level may open up in response to various forces at work. 

 

The Move/Turn In The Underworld

 

We are introduced to the concept of movement based timekeeping. Moving so far causes a discrete amount of time to elapse; the turn. A turn is equivalent to 10 minutes of in-game time. This will help resolve the duration of spell effects and light sources, among many other aspects of the game. This section also introduces many other staples of a typical D&D session. 

 

• Mapping movement versus fleeing
• Rest
• Searching
• Melee and combat turns
• Secret passages, stuck doors, spiking doors
• Traps
• Listening at doors
• Light sources underground
• Fireballs and lightning bolts as “tactical nukes” that just may turn around and bite the caster

III-7: Stocking The Underworld, Annotated

Page 7

 

Distribution of Monsters And Treasure: 

 

• 33% of of rooms should have a monster. The text suggests use of the Monster Level Tables on page 10 is suggested for inspiration.
• Half of all rooms inhabited by monsters contain some kind of treasure.
• 17% of empty rooms will have treasure. This treasure will always have silver with chances of other types of loot being present as well, based upon the level beneath the surface.

III-6: Wrapping Up Tricks & Traps, Annotated.

Page 6

 

Other tips and traps are included beneath #8 and intended to be a part of the explanation for the sample floor plan. These include tips about access upward and downward, and on the other hand not making treasure too easy to get to. 

 

Tricks And Traps: the sample floor plan has some great ideas but this section includes even more tried and true gimmicks for the referee, all of which have become classic. This area also contains some more tips for setting up a dungeon. Study of this page will serve a neophyte referee well.

Hidden Rules, A Summary

I've collected all the rules I've called hidden rules whilst I was doing my annotations for OD&D. These are useful bits buried in places one would not expect to find them, thus "hidden."

Hidden Rule #1

Missile Fire Ranges: OD&D lacks any information regarding missile ranges. Or does it? My first hidden rules in the annotations contained these:

Volume II: Monsters & Magic p. 10, Manticores; the rules state (...) with the range (18”) accuracy and effect of a crossbow.

The Nixies listing on p. 15 of the same volume gives javelins a 6” throwing range.

Volume III, Miscellaneous Weapons states the range for thrown axes, war hammers, and possibly spears (depending upon how one parses the description) a thrown range of 3”. All ranges are considered Medium with regard to modifiers, no Short or Long ranges.

Hidden Rule #2

Light Sources: as with missile ranges, nothing is stated explicitly in the section regarding illumination. With a bit of reading however, the light spells of the magic-user and cleric give us a starting point: cast light in a circle 3” in diameter. This is somewhat less than Dr. Holmes would give a torch in his Basic D&D "blue" book, he uses 3" radius, but it is a decent starting point.

Hidden Rule #3

Set Weapon versus Charge: under the entry for (magical) Spears we read [a]dditionally, if something impales itself upon the spear, damage will be double or even treble if the force is sufficient. This was often used as “set against charge” rule for any spear or polearm in many campaigns.

Hidden Rule #4

Partial Armor: how often does a monster strike at an unprotected head? On this page we find a guideline. It (the magic helm) does not protect in the same way as Magic Armor, so if it is worn in combat any hit upon its wearer should be given a 10% of striking the helm and smashing it (parenthetical comment added). With a little work this could be expanded into a house-rule for partial armors, if the referee so desired. 

Hidden Rule #5

Gaze Attacks: the description for looking into this item (a mirror of life trapping) and falling victim to it gives a very good guideline for any gaze attacks: If it is openly displayed there is a 90% chance an unsuspecting creature will look full within it and be trapped. There is only a 10% chance a knowing person will be unable to avoid looking into it. Stumbling upon Medusa unprepared gives a 90% chance of meeting her gaze, if you’re ready you have a 1 in 10 of meeting her eyes and getting “stoned.”

Hidden Rule #6

How many adventurers can fight side-by-side in a 10' corridor? Using this rule can lead to some good PC tactics, such as using narrow passages to ameliorate a enemy's superior numbers. 

Hidden Rule: most referees would allow that hobgoblins are roughly human sized (1+1 hit dice). In the second section of this entry, appearing on the next page, we read […] how many [hobgoblins] can come abreast down a typical passage in the dungeons? Allow perhaps 3 in a ten foot wide passage, and the balance will either be behind the front rank or fanning out to come upon the enemy by other routes. We used this as a basis for a 3-man front line in a party while in 10’ corridor. Accurate? It worked, and we still use that ruling to this day. But looking back, we wonder if 3 armed and armored fighting men side by side in a 10’ corridor would actually work at all.

Hidden Rule #7

Rowed Ships On The Open Seas: a nearly hidden rule allows the use of Viking longships on the open sea, as opposed to other types of rowed vessels because they were pierced high on the freeboard.

How It Begins & How It Ends

Reflections On A Revolutionary Game

Once upon a time, long, long ago ... 

I love the sense of wonder and "let's pretend" this phrase evokes. It was typed by a master story-teller named Gary Gygax, who was in turn inspired by the genius of Dave Arneson. It recreates childhood play sessions of knights fighting dragons, cowboys exploring the Old West, and Superman flying in to save the day. It was the perfect introduction.

Fight on! 

This tells us the story doesn't end here! Maybe a hero fell, perhaps this is the end and another will step forward to take his place. Or maybe, just maybe this is not the end for that hero but merely a setback. It's fantasy, anything can happen.



 

III: 4 & 5: Wicked, Tricksy, Trapsy Referee, Annotated

Page 4-5

 

The second map we are presented with is a sample level but we feel this is a misnomer. It is more of a map containing a sampling of … well … samples. It does illustrate some rather important principles, though these may not be explicitly stated. Numbers here correspond to the numbered points on page 5. 

 

1. A map-based puzzle maze. The only way to exit is to solve the puzzle. Only … how did the players end up there in the first place? A myriad of options present to the imagination, but none are listed in the text.
2. Another maze with a secret exit. Besides the threat of wandering monsters, a very real one as we will learn later, four ogres lurk in the heart of this maze.
3. An area specifically designed to confound mappers. As if the mazes were not enough. An interesting entry in light of the current mode of thinking regarding making the adventure as easy on the player-characters as possible. No, here we see the referee doing the opposite.
4. A slide trap to a lower level, and a room with corridors designed to funnel the players into an encounter with a basilisk.
5. A nasty set of traps and unless you’re out to get your players it is not suggested for actual use (emphasis added). This one includes an unnoticed trip to a lower level, a transporter to wherever the referee imagines such as the center of the earth, and a transporter creating the illusion of an endless corridor.
6. A clever shifting wall trap that may also be applied to staircases.
7. A nice modular area designed to give players and mappers fits.
8. Another encounter area leading to some evil man in one area and a true troll or two perhaps in another. We feel the original version of this area was bit easier to understand, having the tunnel more clearly delineated. Subsequent printings changed the white background to black and this detail was obscured in those printings (though it is mentioned in the text).